Over two weeks after Aaron Hernandez committed suicide while serving a life sentence for murder, more strange details have emerged about his actions leading up to his death.
The former New England Patriots tight end cut his right middle finger and drew circular marks in blood on each of his feet, consistent with images of the feet of Jesus Christ after he was hung from the cross, according to Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wetzel.
Along with writing a bible verse from John 3:16 on his forehead in red pen, Hernandez marked the page with the same verse in his bible in blood and wrote it on his cell wall, an investigative report released by the Massachusetts State Police on Thursday stated.
The Bible passage reads: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Three handwritten suicide notes were also found next to the bloody open page of the bible.
While still a star player with the Patriots under QB Tom Brady, Hernandez was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Odin Lloyd in June 2013. He was immediately dropped by New England and subsequently found guilty on April 15, 2015.
The 27-year-old committed suicide by hanging himself with a bed sheet while serving a life sentence at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts, on April 19 — coincidentally the same day that his former team was being honored at the White House for their Super Bowl LI victory.
According to Yahoo! Sports, the newly-released police report states that Hernandez was locked in his cell at 7:59 p.m. on April 18, just after concluding a phone call. Correction officers last observed him during the routine 1 a.m. bed check on April 19.
Two hours later, at about 3:03 a.m., officer Gerard Breau came upon Hernandez’s cell and found a sheet covering the door, preventing a view inside. When there was no response to his call into the cell to the prisoner, Breau investigated the situation and then discovered Hernandez naked, hanging from a cut-up bed sheet tied to a bar on a window.
Officers were unable to immediately open the automatic cell door as “cardboard had been shoved into the door tracks to prevent the door from opening,” the report says.
Hernandez’s death had previously been ruled a suicide and the latest report states that the body showed marks around his neck, blood in his eyes and vomit and discharge from his mouth, each consistent with hanging.